The Mexican actor – who played Papá in ‘Coco’ – spent this year’s Día de Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico with Expedia
Despite growing up in Mexico and starring in the beloved Disney Pixar film Coco, Jaime Camil just had the full Día de Muertos experience this year.
“Día de Muertos is like going to Carnival in Brazil… or going to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls in Spain… it’s a big one, it’s a big holiday,” Camil, 51, who voiced Papá in the 2017 animated hit, tells PEOPLE. ‘It is a wonderful holiday that you will never think about [the people you’ve lost] and celebrate their lives.
“This is my first authentic Dia de Muertos celebration,” continues the actor, who recently partnered with Expedia to create a “Travel Shop” curating his favorite stays in Mexico. “In my family we were very Americanized. So we did Halloween, the trick or treating, and we had a ofrenda (Spanish for offer) in our house, but I didn’t quite understand what it was, the meaning. I was very, very young.”
When the opportunity to be part of Coconut came, he developed a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the holiday.
Related: How Jane the VirginJaime Camil inspires travelers who want to experience Día de Muertos in Mexico
‘When you see it Coconutthat’s how it is. It’s not an exaggeration. And it’s not a caricature of when you go to the cemeteries, they are beautiful,” he explains. “They are beautiful and super well decorated, and people dance and they remember their loved ones and they keep the memory alive.”
Camil says his two children love the movie, but they “don’t care” that he plays Papá in the film.
“I want to think they get excited. But I’m a dad, so I’m the uncoolest person in the universe to them,” he says of his children Elena, 13, and Jaime, 10, whom he shares with wife, the Mexican model Heidi Balvanera.
“But my daughter comes to work sometimes and I see a glimpse of, ‘That’s my dad. I’m proud,'” he adds.
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty
Jaime Camil with wife Heidi Balvanera and children Elena and Jaime
For fans looking for a “live-action experience” of the film, Camil suggests traveling to Oaxaca or Morelia, Mexico: “You can’t go wrong,” he says.
Camil’s partnership with Expedia gave Camil the full experience in Oaxaca, which offers Day of the Dead tours, parades and lively processions called muerteadas.
Related: Jaime Camil of ‘Coco’ Opens Up About His ‘Super Hot Wife’ and Family Life
However, his list of favorite places to stay extends across the country and is worth a visit all year round.
“When Expedia told me they wanted me to do curated experiences and hotels that you recommend, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s really good,’ because when you travel, you usually ask friends, ‘Hey, are you been here?
“I travel a lot with my family, so I wanted to make my curated stores family-oriented,” he continues. “That doesn’t mean the hotels I recommend are only for families, but they are very family-friendly.”
Camil’s Travel Shop is now available to view with his best recommendations in Mexico.
